Plate Tectonics: A Detailed Analysis of Earth's Surface Processes

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of plate tectonics, detailing the three primary types of plate boundaries: divergence, convergence, and transform. The assignment explains how each boundary type influences Earth's surface, including the creation of new oceanic crust, the formation of mountains and volcanoes, and the occurrence of earthquakes. It also provides specific examples of each boundary type, such as the West Coast of South America (convergence), the San Andreas fault in California (transform), and the south tip of Africa (divergence). The assignment references key scholarly sources to support its explanations, offering a strong foundation for understanding the complexities of plate tectonics and its impact on the planet.

Geography
QUESTION ONE
The Earth’s lithosphere (the crust and upper mantle) is made up of a series of tectonic plates that
move slowly over time (Niu, 2018).
The three types of plate interactions are:
Divergence
Occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other.
This causes earthquakes and magma rises from the Earth’s mantle along the boundaries to the
surface, solidifying to create new oceanic crust.
Convergence
This occurs when two plates come together.
The colliding impact of plates causes the edges of one or both plates to buckle up into a
mountain or one of the plates may bend down into a deep seafloor trench.
A chain of volcanoes often forms parallel to convergent plate boundaries and power earthquakes
are common along these boundaries.
At convergent plate boundaries, oceanic crust is forced down into the mantle and Magma rises
into and through the other plate, solidifying into granite (the rock that makes up the continents).
Thus continental crust is created and oceanic crust is destroyed.
Transform boundary
Here, two plates slide past each other.
Natural or human-made structures that cross a transform boundary are offset-split into pieces and
carried in opposite directions. Rocks that line the boundary are pulverized as the plates grind
along, creating a linear fault valley or undersea canyon.
Earthquakes results crust is cracked and broken at transform margins, but is not created or
destroyed.

QUESTION TWO
Location
Convergence-The West Coast of South America.
Transform-California's San Andreas fault.
Divergence-South tip of Africa (Young-Brown, 2019).
References
Niu, Y. (2018). Geological understanding of plate tectonics: Basic concepts,
illustrations, examples and new perspectives. Global Tectonics and Metallogeny, 10(1), pp.23–
46.
Young-Brown, F. (2019). Plate tectonics. New York: Cavendish Square.